Greta Thunberg hits out at Cop31 leaders as nations plead for help: ‘No one is coming to our rescue’

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has hit out at wealthy governments for not taking the climate crisis seriously enough, saying that the planet is “not dying, it is being killed and we know by who”. Speaking amid a throng of press on the sidelines of the UN’s Cop31 summit in Antalya, Turkey – the first time she has attended the conference in five years – she said that it is “being killed by the very same people thought to come to our rescue.” “No one is coming to our rescue... When our human rights are being threatened by states and other institutions, it’s our duty to stand up and be the adult in the room and fight for everyone’s human rights,” she added. The conference comes in a year marked by destructive weather events, including lethal floods and heatwaves, alongside energy market turbulence triggered by the Iran war.It comes as nations at the frontline of the climate crisis – facing an existential threat – have called on larger countries to act now, as there is zero time to waste. Abdoulaye Maiga, the prime minister of Mali, used his speech on the second and final day of leaders speeches said: “The countries and people who have contributed least to climate change should not bear the brunt, he said. “Our people should not be burdened by the debt [to fight the crisis]”.”Our planet is sick, it is very sick. It needs a remedy. We need to act in a decisive manner to preserve the planet and spare future generations. We must act today to save the planet, as tomorrow will already be too late,” he added.Mohammed Usrof, founder of the Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy (PICS) speaks next to Rikki Dank, a Gudanji and Wakaya Traditional Owner, Celine Isimbi and activist Greta Thunberg (Getty)Alix Sebastien Pillay, the vice president of Seychelles, a 115-island archipelago in the Indian Ocean, said his country’s very survival is at stake. “It is time to move past the talking,” he said. “For Seychelles, climate action is not simply an environmental priority.”That continued a theme from the previous day, where Surangel Samuel Whipps Jr, the president of the Pacific island of Palau, said that “the 1.5 degree goal [the level of global warming compared to pre-industrial levels] is slipping away. “In Glasgow [Cop26 in 2021], I said, 'You might as well bomb us.' That might have been easier than watching climate change tear apart our homes piece by piece,” he continued. “We are at war with a crisis we did not create, a war no peace treaty can end; only urgent action can.” Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned the conference in his speech on Thursday that climate change is a “national security issue”. Attending the annual conference for the first time in his capacity as prime minister, Mr Burnham issued a stark warning over the issue, outlining how the climate crisis is “upon all of us now” and “devastating lives and livelihoods everywhere”.But amid accusations that his government is deprioritising the green agenda, campaigners said the prime minister must do more to bridge the “widening chasm between words and deeds”.Meanwhile, a new report has warned that the world is heading for an “irrecoverable overshoot” on dangerous global warming unless governments reject fossil fuels and start rapidly cutting emissions.The latest update from the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) initiative, released as countries meet for “Cop31” UN climate talks in Turkey, warns that collective climate action has stalled for the fifth consecutive year.(Reuters)There are some positive signs, with clean electricity meeting all additional global demand for power in 2025, China and India deploying renewables at a record pace, the electric vehicle roll out reaching new highs and deforestation in the Amazon falling sharply.But the report from CAT warns progress on deploying alternatives to fossil fuels – which cause most of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming when they are burned for transport, heating, power and industry – is not happening fast enough.It finds that, with the policies on tackling climate change and driving clean energy and technologies that governments have in place today, the world is on track for 2.7C of warming by 2100 – up slightly from 2.6C last year and the same as the years 2021 to 2024.If governments met 2030 and 2035 targets to cut emissions under the Paris Agreement – the leadmark 2015 global treaty which aims to curb warming to 1.5C to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change – warming would still be 2.6C, the same as last year.Under an optimistic scenario in which countries meet all their pledges, targets, long term, and “net zero” targets to cut emissions to zero overall, the world would see warming of 1.9C by the end of the century.The world is set to exceed the Paris target of 1.5C of warming in the next few years, and experts warn there is now a need to act to limit the size and duration of the overshoot and bring temperatures down to below 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures by 2100.Dancers perform at the Moana Pacific Blue pavilion at Cop31 (Getty)At the conference, alongside other activists from Nepal, Australia, Palestine and Canada, Greta Thunberg – who is Swedish – said the world is “heading towards a future of more genocides and more ecocides, the complete compromise of our basic rights and where basic necessities become luxuries.”The activists also called for Turkey to end energy shipments to Israel, over its military actions inside Gaza. Thunberg called it a genocide, an accusation Israel has staunchly denied.The summit is being co-hosted this year by Turkey and Australia, two coal-dependent nations. Ankara has also received criticism for announcing the discovery of new oil fields during the summit. The country is an outspoken political and social supporter of Gaza and the broader Palestinian cause, however. In 2024, it announced a complete suspension of all import and export trade with Israel over the humanitarian crisis. It did not invite the Israeli government to the leader’s summit this week, with environment minister and COP president-designate Murat Kurum telling Turkish media on Tuesday saying there “can be no climate justice where peace does not prevail.”However, pro-Palestinian groups claim that Azerbaijani crude oil shipments travelling through Turkish ports, destined for other countries, have instead been delivered to Israel.Thunberg has not attended COP conference since 2021, when she claimed the talks amounted to “blah, blah, blah”, and has become increasingly involved with advocating for Palestine. When she arrived at the Cop31 summit on Tuesday, she launched a sharp critique of the annual event as hypocritical, saying the host countries are “given an opportunity to whitewash themselves and we know that these negotiations are filled with lobbyists”. Previous host nations, including Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and Azerbaijan, are major oil producers.